The Angry Video Game Nerd
The Angry Video Game Nerd (also referred to as AVGN or The Nerd, and formerly known as The Angry Nintendo Nerd) is a web television series of comedic retrogaming video reviews created by and starring James Rolfe. The show revolves around his commentary of old and typically unsuccessful video games which he deems to be of particularly low-quality, unfair difficulty or poor design. Rolfe's character, "The Nerd", is short-tempered and foul-mouthed Gamer . He derives comic appeal from excessive and inventive use of anger, profanity, and habitual consumption of alcohol while reviewing video games. The series began as a feature on YouTube and later became a program on ScrewAttack Entertainment before moving to GameTrailers and Cinemassacre exclusively. The show was renamed The Angry Video Game Nerd to prevent any trademark issues with Nintendo, allowing him to also review games from non-Nintendo consoles such as Atari and Sega. A feature-length film, Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, is expected to be released in 2014. History The Angry Nintendo Nerd The series began in 2004 when James Rolfe made a short review of the NES game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest under the title "Bad NES Games". He then decided to make another video about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The videos were produced and published on Cinemassacre.com and released outside of the website as "The Quickies" tape, part of a four VHS tape set called the "Cinemassacre Gold Collection" that he had put together himself. On April 6, 2006, a friend, Mike Matei, made him a YouTube channel under the name of "JamesNintendoNerd", now changed to "Cinemassacre", although the URL still includes the original name. As of March 2013, the YouTube channel has reached over one million subscribers. On September 12, 2006, Rolfe's series received mainstream attention when his review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went viral on YouTube. It was reported in an MTV segment called "Viral Videos Infect the Mainstream". On November 2, 2008, his videos were featured on the nationally syndicated radio show Opie and Anthony. Rolfe was soon interviewed by Opie and Anthony on January 9, 2008. Rolfe soon went on to host a segment on Opie and Anthony's channel for their "Saturday Night Virus" block; however, he completed only one episode before leaving the program entirely. The Angry Video Game Nerd Rolfe later changed the name of the program from The Angry Nintendo Nerd to The Angry Video Game Nerd to prevent trademark issues with Nintendo. Additionally, Rolfe began to diversify his reviews of games to other platforms such as the Atari 2600, Super Nintendo, Sega Master System and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Some episodes began to feature other video game-related subjects, such as console accessories like the Power Glove and U-Force, films such as The Wizard, and the Nintendo Power magazine. Rolfe stated almost every episode has a reference from the documentary American Movie. As stated by James Rolfe on his website, his first videos were intended as "just a joke", and he had no intentions of making them public, showing them only to his friends. After two years, Mike Matei suggested he put the reviews online. They soon did, and since then, his reviews have become increasingly popular and eventually developed a large fanbase. Rolfe's videos grew longer and soon transformed into a formal series complete with title cards, a song as an introduction, official merchandise, and DVDs of past seasons. After his fourth gaming review on YouTube, ScrewAttack invited Rolfe to have his own section on their website and became employed by MTV Networks' GameTrailers.com. Beginning July 23, 2012, with the 107th episode entitled "Schwarzenegger Games", the series returned to YouTube. As of December 22, 2011, Rolfe is currently focusing most of his efforts on producing Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. He has stated on his website, the film is mostly finished with the exception of a few key scenes, and many special effects. It is to be released "this lifetime", as stated on the teaser poster. Rolfe released an update in April 2013 stating that he did not know when it would be finished, believing that "it will be a long time" and "any attempt to guess would only prove us wrong". Until then, he and Matei will continue to put out AVGN episodes, and other content regularly. On February 4, 2013, the character, along with Nostalgia Critic, made a background cameo appearance in the anime Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited. In November 2013, co-host/writer Mike Matei began uploading Top 10 Nerd-related videos. Episodes Video game In 2013, an official video game titled The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures was announced. It was released on September 20, 2013 on Steam. The game follows the Nerd attempting to rescue his friends (Mike Matei, Guitar Guy, and the Bullshit Man), all of whom were sucked into the Nerd's television set (done in a The Cheetahmen-esque style). The Nerd uses a NES Zapper as his main weapon, and a character known as Naggi the Patronising Firefly, a parody of Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, guides him through the tutorial. Throughout the game, he faces zombies, Mr. Hyde, Custer, The Giant Claw, Fred "Fucks" (Fred Fuchs) and both Jason Voorhees and an oversized version of Freddy Krueger's right arm (both references to the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street games) and more. Awards The Angry Video Game Nerd was voted Best Online Web Series in Mashable's 3rd Annual Open Web Awards on December 16, 2009.